Evolving information and communication technology (ICT) reshapes people's reading activities by popularizing digital reading. Past studies focused on the relationships between students' frequency of ICT use and reading performance but neglected the possible interrelationships between students' ICT-related psychological factors, school contextual…

Background: Research has shown that students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to have lower academic performance compared to children from better-off families. However, the way that socioeconomic status (SES) influences student learning outcomes has not yet been fully examined. Thus, this study explores the indirect effects…

Much of the existing educational research has focused on affluent Western societies. Despite comprising a broad swathe of the world population, less work has focused on lower middle-income economies such as the Philippines. Perhaps part of this reason is the lack of high-quality data in such contexts. PISA provides a potential solution to this…

Non-cognitive characteristics of students in four Southeast Asian countries -- Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Viet Nam -- were reviewed based on the PISA 2009, 2012, and 2015 data. Overall, students in this region demonstrated similarities with respect to their non-cognitive dispositions such as learning habits, approaches to learning,…

The author examined the relationship between student engagement and academic performance, using U.S. data of the Program for International Student Assessment 2000. The sample comprised 3,268 fifteen-year-old students from 121 U.S. schools. Multilevel analysis showed that behavioral engagement (defined as effort and perseverance in learning) and…

Since at least the enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2002, standardized test scores have served as the primary measures of public school effectiveness. Yet, such scores fail to measure the ultimate goal of education: maximizing happiness. This exploratory analysis assesses nation level associations between test scores and happiness, controlling…